ZAGREB, Aug 27, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros told the government on Thursday that during the past seven days, Croatia experienced the biggest spike in coronavirus cases, and that the numbers are not good, however, the clinical status of people infected with the virus is milder than at the onset of the epidemic.

Since the outbreak the epidemic of the coronavirus on 25 February,  8,889 people in Croatia have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, and 157,387 people have been tested for it.

Currently, there are 2,352 active cases, Beros said.

Of those active cases, 174 are receiving hospital treatment, and this is 7.4% of all those currently infected. There are 10 patients on ventilators or 0.4% of the infected, Beros said.

Responsible behaviour can markedly reduce the spread of the infection, and the minister called on Croatians to strictly comply with epidemiological measures.

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ZAGREB, Aug 27, 2020 - The Croatian chamber of public health officials on Thursday called on the authorities to hire more specialists from sanitary engineering in crisis situations such as the current COVID-19 epidemic.

The chamber says that the shortage of epidemiologists could be offset by actively engaging more certified sanitary engineers who are currently out of work.

The chamber believes that, when it comes to the implementation of epidemiological measures, a major part of the practical work required, could be performed by sanitary engineers. Therefore the association has appealed for more these professionals to be hired in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus infection.

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ZAGREB, Aug 26, 2020 - Head of the national COVID-19 management team and Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Wednesday that the new measures for Split-Dalmatia County, announced by the county's team, would come into force at midnight.

"Split-Dalmatia County has decided to make wearing masks mandatory in bars and restaurants before consuming drinks and food, the number of people at weddings will be limited to 50, wakes are banned, and owners of restaurants are obliged to supervise their facilities more closely. Also, gyms will close, and sports competitions can take place but without spectators," Bozinovic said.

Broken down by counties, the number of new cases of the infection is the highest in Split-Dalmatia County - 136, followed by the City of Zagreb (58), Sibenik-Knin County (33), Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (20), Zagreb County (19), Zadar County (15), Varazdin County (11), Brod-Posavina County (11), while other counties have recorded fewer than 10 new cases.

Asked whether the national COVID-19 response team was considering a complete closure of Split-Dalmatia County, Bozinovic said that was not the case.

"We are not considering that this is the only way to avoid that, and I am convinced there will not be any lockdown. We are keeping the situation under control this way," he said.

Asked about the possibility of the spike in number due to the recent Feast of the Assumption, Bozinovic said that they had assigned local teams to conduct epidemiological surveillance, and they believe the prescribed measures had been implemented.

"Split-Dalmatia County is a hotspot and new measures are being taken there. We will have meetings with others on Thursday, so it is possible that some new measures may be introduced then in some counties," Bozinovic said.

Asked why gyms were closing in Split-Dalmatia County while bars remained open and Masses were allowed, Bozinovic said that the new measures would be in place for 14 days.

He underscored that measures could be dropped or extended. Fines for violating the measures are also possible, he added.

"There is always the possibility of penalizing. We hope there will be no need for that because our intention is that as many people as possible accept the recommendations by the Croatian Public Health Institute. The point is for people to follow the recommendations because then we will achieve the main goal, to reduce the number of new infections and control the situation," he said.

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ZAGREB, Aug 26, 2020- In the last 24 hours, there have been a record high 358 cases of infection with coronavirus in Croatia, and currently there are 2,352 active cases, the national COVID-19 response team said on Wednesday.

Health Minister Vili Beros informed a news conference that 184 COVID patients were currently being treated in hospitals, which is 7.4% of all active cases, and 10 of those patients are now on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 26 new patients have been admitted to the hospital, while 19 have been discharged.

Also, 7,993 people are now in self-isolation.

Croatia's COVID-related death toll stands at 175, and a total of 6,362 have recovered.

Thus, since the onset of the epidemic on 25 February,  8,889 people in Croatia have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, and 157,387 people have been tested for it.

Currently, 130 healthcare workers are positive for COVID.

In Split-Dalmatia County where 136 people have been diagnosed with this infection in the last 24 hours, new hotspots have appeared in fitness gyms.

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ZAGREB, Aug 25, 2020 - The government's Scientific Council on Tuesday recommended introducing new epidemiological measures in places where there are more infected persons in order to reverse the current negative trends ahead of the new school year.

"The number of new infections has been growing over the past two weeks and we have concluded that that was a risk that we accepted when we opened the border for the tourist season, but now we agree that it is time again, in places with an increase in the number of new infections, to take measures to reduce those numbers and have as few infections as possible before the start of the school year," epidemiologist Branko Kolaric said after a session of the Scientific Council.

The new epidemiological measures will be made by the national COVID-19 response team, and the Scientific Council has only advised it on what should be done, he said.

"Our advice is to introduce new measures regionally, locally and depending on the current epidemiological situation. There will be no horizontal measures for the entire country, in the communities with a larger number of infections masks will have to be worn indoors and awareness of the importance of physical distancing will have to be raised," said Kolaric.

He added that due to a shortage of epidemiologists additional personnel would be hired to help primarily in the search for the contacts of infected persons.

Asked about the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus, Kolaric said that he knew very little about it and that he believed it was an adenovirus vaccine. He stressed, though, that on the list of the World Health Organisation there were six vaccines in an advanced stage of research and that he was optimistic in that regard.

The head of Zagreb's hospital for infectious diseases "Dr Fran Mihaljevic", Alemka Markotic, said that one should prepare for the autumn and winter months when more severe cases of the disease and greater pressure on the health system were expected.

"Nobody expects any major lockdown but one should be able to cope with the situation and find the right measures," Markotic said, concluding that so far, Croatia had been dealing well with the pandemic.

As for the tourist season, she said that there had been no significant number of infections in hotels and camping sites and that there were around 300 entries on international platforms with data on infected tourists.

"There has been no explosion of the infection so far but now that people are returning to their workplace and children start school, one should be aware of the need to adhere to epidemiological measures and be disciplined," she said. 

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ZAGREB, Aug 25, 2020 - In the past 24 hours, 219 new cases of the coronavirus were detected in Croatia bringing the total number of cases to 2,231, the national Covid-19 response team said on Tuesday. 

Currently, 167 patients are hospitalised, nine of whom are on ventilators. Two more patients have died.

Since 25 February, when the first case of the infection was detected in Croatia, a total of 8,530 people have been infected, 175 of whom have died while 6,124 have recovered.

There are currently 7,815 people in self-isolation.

A total of 154,159 people have been tested for the virus to date, including 1,977 in the past 24 hours.

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ZAGREB, Aug 24, 2020 - Minister Nikolina Brnjac on Monday stated that the tourism sector was well prepared for the situation caused by the coronavirus and that the good tourism results, and government and crisis response team's measures had resulted in Croatia being recognized as a safe destination.

Commenting on claims by stakeholders in the tourism sector that it is going to take two to three years for tourism to get back to 2019's levels, Minister Brnjac said after meeting with representatives of the hotel industry, that it was of exceptional importance to "strategically think of further steps so that we can establish a sustainable and resilient system."

It is essential that everyone behaves responsibly and adheres to the recommended measures so that the positive trend in arrivals can continue this season and in that way, set the preconditions to maintain safety in the years to come, she said.

"The 2019 tourism season was above average in everything but the number of arrivals does not mean revenue too. That is why a tourism development strategy is important because it is important to know where we are going, what our objective is, and how to develop Croatia's tourism in the future. This situation with COVID is extraordinary. The tourism sector was exceptionally well prepared and the good results we have in fact, along with the government's measures which saved jobs and the measures by the Civil Protection Authority, have resulted in Croatia being recognized as a safe destination," the tourism minister underlined.

She explained that several ministries were in contact with those countries that have put Croatia on the quarantine list to ask that Croatia be treated according to the current developments in counties as the situation is not the same throughout the country.

"Hence, based on the epidemiological circumstances that will occur we expect other countries to review their lists. We have the biggest number of guests from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, and considering that we are a car destination, thanks to the Tourist Board's good promotion, we used our advantage and good road network," she concluded.

Director of the Croatian Tourism Association (HUT) Veljko Ostojic said that if the support measures had not been issued in March, the tourism season would definitely not be as it is because "employers would have been forced to lay off a significant number of workers and without workers there cannot be any tourism." 

We need information about job retention measures...because employers have to make certain decisions. It is also important to secure liquidity for the next tourism season and today we talked about the possibility of using EU funds, he said.

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ZAGREB, Aug 24, 2020- Over the past 24 hours, there have been 136 new cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia, after 1,722 tests were carried out, Health Minister Vili Beros told a press conference of the national COVID-19 response team in Zagreb on Monday.

There are 163 patients in hospitals, including 12 on ventilators. Two more people have died, and those victims were two elderly men.

Currently, there are 2,213 active cases, including 119 health workers, and 7,519 people are self-isolating, 515 of whom are health workers.

Since the first case of the infection was reported, a total of 8,312 people have tested positive for the virus, 5,926 people recovered, and 173 died.

Head of the COVID-19 response team and Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said that given the increase in the number of new infections they had agreed that local teams should define hotspots more precisely.

He expects some teams will come up with concrete measures, and if all teams have similar demands, then a measure can be introduced for the entire country.

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ZAGREB, Aug 20, 2020 - There have been 255 new cases of the coronavirus infection in Croatia in the last 24 hours, and there are now 1,689 active cases, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Of those active cases, 127 are receiving hospital treatment, including 13 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 2,397 people have been tested and since the outbreak of the infection on 25 February, 144,521 tests have been performed.

To date, 7329 people have caught the virus, and of them, 5,472 have fully recovered, while 168 have died.

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ZAGREB, Aug 19, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, of 1,653 tests performed for coronavirus, 219 have returned positive, and currently Croatia has 1,520 active cases, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Wednesday.

Of those active cases, 122 are receiving hospital treatment, including 11 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, there have been two more COVID-related deaths, bringing the death toll to 168.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of the infection was confirmed in the country, a total of 7,074 people have contracted the disease, and of the 5,386 have recovered.

To date, 142,124 people have been tested for the virus.

Currently, 5,459 people are self-isolating.

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